One factor concerning the brutal world of meth dealing on “Breaking Dangerous” is that there was by no means any assure a personality would survive. Collection creator/showrunner Vince Gilligan and the writing workforce thought of killing off main characters fairly recurrently, like famously initially planning on killing Jesse (Aaron Paul) on the finish of season 1 or considering killing Sklyer (Anna Gunn) in season 5. The present would have been very completely different with out Jesse, who’s the true coronary heart and soul of the collection, so killing him would have been an enormous mistake, and killing Skyler would have simply been pointless. Fortunately, the writing workforce made the proper selection in the long run and saved each characters from the chopping block.
Whereas engaged on the ultimate season and getting the large finale all discovered, there was one other character that nearly ended up six toes below: Saul Goodman, performed by Bob Odenkirk. Saul is without doubt one of the present’s finest characters and even obtained his personal prequel collection, “Higher Name Saul,” so killing him off would have had main repercussions. It truthfully would have upset a variety of the fandom on prime of impacting “Higher Name Saul,” so it is nice that he was saved, however why did Gilligan even take into consideration killing him within the first place?
In a 2014 interview with Leisure Weekly, Gilligan defined why he virtually killed Saul and determined to pivot to simply killing Walt (Bryan Cranston) as a substitute, and it is fascinating to consider simply how completely different “Breaking Dangerous” and “Higher Name Saul” may need been.
The Breaking Dangerous finale virtually killed Saul
The “Breaking Dangerous” writing workforce went backwards and forwards on whether or not or not they wished to exit in a “massacre” or do one thing somewhat extra restrained. Gilligan even stated that at one level, “we talked about killing off each main character” in a “‘Wild Bunch’ massacre of an ending.” They finally determined to again off a bit as a result of they realized that although that ending could be dramatic, it would not essentially serve the story. And with Saul, they realized that it would not actually make sense for his character. As Gilligan defined:
“Saul Goodman is sort of like a cockroach, within the sense that he is most likely going to outlive all nuclear wars and he’ll nonetheless be on the market someplace after mankind has change into extinct. He is a survivor and subsequently it might be bizarre if he did not survive. Walter White, however, obtained a dying sentence within the first act of the very first episode. It will be lower than satisfying maybe if he did not die on the finish of the entire thing.”
It was completely important that Walt died on the finish of the collection to finish Walt’s arc, even when the chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-kingpin’s dying was the one second that made Gilligan cry. However when it got here to Saul, there have been some fairly large components moreover his cockroach-like potential to outlive practically something.
No good purpose to kill Saul Goodman
Gilligan admitted that whereas the affect killing Saul would have on “Higher Name Saul” was “most likely an element” of their choice to maintain him alive, the larger drawback was that they simply could not provide you with a very good purpose or approach to kill him. There simply wasn’t that magical second once they all felt like they’d settled on the right approach to take out Saul that will have that means and be narratively satisfying, so he figured, “Why hassle?”
He additionally identified that their involvement in “Higher Name Saul” did not imply a personality would survive “Breaking Dangerous,” in fact, as Mike (Jonathan Banks) had a serious position within the prequel collection regardless of being killed off “despatched to Belize” within the killer season 5 episode “Say My Identify.” Characters weave all through “Breaking Dangerous,” “Higher Name Saul,” and the sequel movie “El Camino,” with fairly a number of dying onscreen in “Breaking Dangerous” lengthy earlier than showing in “Higher Name Saul.” (In case you’re confused on the timelines, don’t be concerned, we have a primer on that.)
I am glad that they did not kill off Saul as a result of it might have solid a gloom over “Higher Name Saul” that will have been onerous to disregard, and that collection is really unbelievable. And like Gilligan stated, Saul’s a survivor, a cockroach, the sort of man that simply would not go down due to Walter White.
